Changespotting: The better living edition

Competitions are great incentives for new ideas and this is illustrated by the second place winner of the Solar Park Works - Solar Highway competition in Italy. The brainchild of three Italian designers is a visually impressive modernisation of a high-altitude bridge which, through wind and solar power, could generate electricity for an estimated 15,000 homes.

Two students at the University of California Berkeley have extensively studied woodpeckers to establish how they protect themselves when sustaining head shocks that would leave any human concussed. Their findings have helped them design a shock absorber that could vastly improve the protection surrounding aeroplanes' black boxes and spacecraft.

Planting more wildflower meadows and working a 21-hour week are two of the 10 suggestions for improving the way we live put forth by Emma John at the Guardian. There are also links to relevant organisations to help you find out more about creating small, but beneficial, changes in the world.